By Sachin Kumar
DOHA: Qatar’s nascent e-commerce market is dominated by airline tickets and consumer electronics. Sale of airline tickets and consumer electronics occupy around 40 percent share in country’s e-commerce market.
Air travel market has 22 percent share while consumer electronics has 18 percent share in Qatar’s e-commerce market. The e-commerce, also called B2C (Business-to-Consumer), market is currently estimated at around $1bn. “Currently, airline tickets and consumer electronics are the dominant B2C segments, making up approximately 40 percent of the B2C market in Qatar.
This B2C market segmentation is also in line with the overall the Middle East and North Africa B2C market split,” said Qatar National e-Commerce Roadmap 2015 report released recently the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ictQatar).
Fashion (apparels) come third in Qatar’s e-commerce sector with 15 percent share while content has 11 percent share. Entertainment related items and hotel bookings have 10 percent market share each. Penetration of e-commerce is comparatively low in Qatar with around 0.3m people buying goods online.
“Air tickets has lion’s share in Qatar’s e-commerce market because of high expatriate population. Companies offer annual tickets for employees which give strong volumes to air travel business,” said a senior official from ictQatar.
Despite a favourable environment for e-commerce, the e-commerce uptake remains relatively low. The percentage of people shopping online represents 14 percent of the total population (compared with a regional average of 27 percent), with relatively higher adoption rates among expatriates and lower rates among Qataris and low-wage labourers.
According to the report, the groups not active in e-commerce are concentrated between blue collar and transient labourers — who represent 54 percent of the population in Qatar.
About 15 percent of the population above 20 is not active in e-commerce and 17 percent of non-active population is under 20.
The segment with the highest potential for activity in e-commerce is Westerners and Arab and Asian expats, at 29 percent, followed by young Qataris and Arabs, Asians, and Westerners with high disposable income, at 20 percent. Blue collar and transient labourers will continue to have low e-commerce potential (25 percent), added the report.
According to a Small and Medium Enterprises survey launched by ictQatar this year, adoption of B2B (Business to Business) e-commerce is generally low in Qatar, with 7 percent of SMEs placing online orders.
The 2014 B2B market in Qatar was estimated at $1.3bn and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10 percent, higher than the global average. While the B2B market represents about 80 percent of the e-commerce market globally, in Qatar it represents some 40 percent of the local e-commerce market.
The Peninsula
